This is going to be old news to many of you, but this past week I experienced Tesla's self-driving capabilities for the first time. And I must say that I was very impressed. It did everything from navigate stop-and-go city traffic to navigate lane changes on the highway. Overall, it makes my five-year old car feel pretty quaint. The software is that much more sophisticated and one has to assume that all of this autonomy stuff will only get significantly better as LIDAR becomes common place in production vehicles.

In other car news, North America appears to be narrowing in on an EV charging plug standard. It is Tesla's plug, but it is now appropriately called the North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug. And last week, Electrify America -- which is the largest non-Tesla, fast-charging network in the US -- announced that it would be adding the plug to its network. The company also happens to be owned by Volkswagen. So big and important companies seem to be coalescing around this plug type.

Lastly for today, here's a post by Fred Wilson talking about (1) bi-directional EV charging, (2) the apartment buildings he and his wife are developing, and (3) our ongoing transformation away from a centralized electrical grid to a decentralized one. What he talks about in his post is something that we are actually piloting in a few of Slate's office buildings right now. It's still early days, but I think it's really exciting. Tech seems to be enabling a broader shift toward decentralization. And in the case of our electrical grid, it's going to lead to a more resilient one.

This is going to be old news to many of you, but this past week I experienced Tesla's self-driving capabilities for the first time. And I must say that I was very impressed. It did everything from navigate stop-and-go city traffic to navigate lane changes on the highway. Overall, it makes my five-year old car feel pretty quaint. The software is that much more sophisticated and one has to assume that all of this autonomy stuff will only get significantly better as LIDAR becomes common place in production vehicles.

In other car news, North America appears to be narrowing in on an EV charging plug standard. It is Tesla's plug, but it is now appropriately called the North American Charging Standard (NACS) plug. And last week, Electrify America -- which is the largest non-Tesla, fast-charging network in the US -- announced that it would be adding the plug to its network. The company also happens to be owned by Volkswagen. So big and important companies seem to be coalescing around this plug type.

Lastly for today, here's a post by Fred Wilson talking about (1) bi-directional EV charging, (2) the apartment buildings he and his wife are developing, and (3) our ongoing transformation away from a centralized electrical grid to a decentralized one. What he talks about in his post is something that we are actually piloting in a few of Slate's office buildings right now. It's still early days, but I think it's really exciting. Tech seems to be enabling a broader shift toward decentralization. And in the case of our electrical grid, it's going to lead to a more resilient one.